Title Case vs Sentence Case: Which Should You Use?

Headings and titles can follow two common capitalisation styles. The right choice depends on your audience, your platform and your style guide.

What is Title Case?

Title Case capitalises the first letter of each major word. Small words such as a, an, the, and, but and short prepositions usually stay lowercase unless they open the title. Example: How to Write Better Headlines for Your Blog.

What is sentence case?

Sentence case capitalises only the first word and any proper nouns. Example: How to write better headlines for your blog.

When to use each

• Title Case: book and film titles, formal publication names, and traditional US news headlines
• Sentence case: modern blog subheadings, interface labels and buttons, emails, and many European publications

Many modern product style guides prefer sentence case for interface text because it reads as friendlier and is easier to scan.

Consistency matters most

Pick one style for each kind of heading and apply it everywhere on your site. Mixed styles look careless, while a consistent style looks deliberate.